urned to your front.

[Illustration: Fig. 24.--Acknowledging.]

Again, if you should get an awkward cut, do all you can not to return
savagely. If you make any difference at all, play more lightly for the
next five minutes, otherwise you may drift into a clumsy slogging match,
ending in bad blood. Finally, if you do get hold of a vicious opponent,
do not, whatever you do, show that you mind his blows. If he sees that a
cut at a particular place makes you flinch, he will keep on feinting at
it until he hits you wherever he pleases; but if, on the contrary, you
take no notice of punishment, you are apt to dishearten the adversary,
who feels that your blows hurt him, and is uncertain whether his tell
upon you in like manner. I may as well say here that throughout this
paper, I have, as far as possible, used English words to explain my
meaning, abstaining from the French terms of the fencing school, as
being likely to confuse a beginner, who may not want to learn French as
an introduction to fencing.

OUTFIT.

The accessories necessary for single-stick are much more numerous now
than in the old days on the village green. Then two stout ash-plants,
and the old North-country prayer (beautifully terse), "God, spare our
eyes!" were considered all that was necessary. Now a complete equipment
costs rather more than a five-pound note.

First, then, there is the helmet, constructed more solidly than that
used for foil play, although the wire mesh of which it is made is
generally a good deal wider than the mesh of the fencing mask. The best
helmet is made of stout wire, with a top of buffalo hide, completely
covering the head, and with padded ear-pieces to take off the effect of
a slashing cut. These are better than those made of cane, which are apt
to give way before a stout thrust and let in the enemy's point to the
detriment of eyes and complexion. Be careful, in choosing your helmet,
to see that it fits you exactly, as a nodding helm may, in a close
thing, so interfere with your sight as to give your adversary a very
considerable advantage. The jacket generally used for this play is made
like a pea-jacket, with two sleeves, and should be of stout leather. If
this is loose fitting, it will afford ample protection, and is not so
hot as the padded coat sometimes seen. Besides being too hot, the
handsome white kid padded jackets soon get holes made in them by the
ash-plant, whereas the brown leather is seldom torn.

In